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The Curse of the Fate Shifter
Yet Another Butterfly's Tale: The Curse of the Fate Shifter is the third book in the Butterfly Princess series. It was published online in October 2014. Synopsis The story opens in the Dwarf settlelement of Stonekeep, where the Ancient One has been inadvertantly released from his centuries-old imprisonment. He lays waste to the Dwarves and, following his escape, proceeds to find a likely candidate to manipulate into serving him. At the butterfly settlement, the former butterfly princess Mariposa is still having difficulty adjusting to the new colony after nearly two years of living there. She dislikes the lascivious butterfly king and disagrees with some of the colony's traditions—but more than anything else, she misses Four, with whom she had parted ways so she could live at the settlement. Rather than ruling the people, as she is accustomed to, she spends her days performing menial tasks like counting brain nuts, while prospective suitors like Taylor express prurient interest in her. The coming-of-age ceremony for Archer, and her subsequent mating with Taylor, only serves to drive home for Mariposa how much she longs for Four. Mariposa sets out to search for Four, equipping herself with her bloodrock sword and armor, unaware that the dark sorcery emanating from it is poisoning her mind. Taylor insists on accompanying her. When they encounter a rogue band of moth hunters, however, Taylor is woefully ill-equipped to deal with them, and is mortally wounded. Mariposa dispatches the moths except for one, who is a surviving relative of Syxx, whom Mariposa allows to escape. She discovers Taylor and—confused and beginning to feel the effects of the bloodrock—is forced to euthanize him. Elsewhere in the town of Guttersworth, Four has taken residence there and has a job working at the Skeleton's Key repair shop, competing with Rouge for the favor of their employer. Rouge is kind to the vagrants who live behind the shop, often giving them leftovers. Four gets a visit from a disguised Syzygy, who is looking for parts to repair himself, but does not recognize the magical construct. Mariposa returns to the settlement and tries to explain what happened to the butterfly king. He is less concerned about Taylor's death and more concerned that Mariposa left the settlement without permission. When she tries to argue the point, he exiles her from the colony, insisting that her son Gusano remain behind to be properly cared for. Taylor's mate, Cooper , is furious with her for allowing him to die. Talla Unica, disenfranchised with the new colony, elects to join Mariposa as she leaves. Talla also discovers a rainbow-colored butterfly, whom she keeps as a pet and names Normal. They travel to a human village called Frontwater in their search for Four. Talla Unica realizes that, on some level, Mariposa is hoping she will not find Four because she fears she may go crazy and hurt him. After Mariposa is unexpectedly inebriated by the tavern beverages, she launches into a rant, chastizing the humans there and revealing herself as a butterfly. They converge upon her, only stopping when the Dwarf digger machine unexpectedly emerges from beneath the ground right next to the tavern. In the aftermath, Talla Unica implores Mariposa to rid herself of her bloodrock equipment. Mariposa is reluctant to do so, believing that her bloodrock amulet allows her to commune with her ancestors. Talla Unica relates the story of how she had once been a normal butterfly but that her adoptive human mother had cut off her wings to try to change what Talla was. Mariposa, upon realizing that the bloodrock was changing her as well, discarded it all. Back in Guttersworth, Four helps Rouge search for her ailing father, who has inexplicably gone missing. He discovers a moth warrior traipsing through the town, but when he gives chase, the moth inexplicably uses magic to escape. Later, after Four leaves Rouge at the repair shop, she encounters a wandering zom, which immobilizes her and consumes her brain. It crawls into her skull and masquerades as her, hoping to lure others to its zom colony. Elsewhere, Mirabel Miller, with Syzygy in tow, continues with her plan to prevent the Moon's collision with the Earth. As part of her new scheme, she remade her image and befriended an influential Elf named Elladan, who entrusted her with a magical Elf talisman. She used it to free the Ancient One, mistaking him to be a dog-like creature of some kind, intending to offer her services to the Dwarves to recapture it. Her plan is to gain access to the Dwarf digger machine, using it to excavate sufficient material from within the Earth to change the planet's mass. She intends to enlist the sorcerers of White Mesa to levitate the excavated material off the planet, thus changing the Earth's mass and, hopefully, preventing the celestial collision. Mariposa and Talla Unica continue their search, with Talla Unica discovering her clairvoyant powers. They encounter a pack of Trolls in the mountains; Mariposa is captured but Talla manages to flee. She remembers that Forever the dragon could sense when she is distressed, so she makes a mental plea for his help. When he does not arrive, however, she realizes she can use her ability to predict the future to trick the Trolls, and manages to convince them she has the power to control nature. Terrified, they flee and Mariposa is saved. In Guttersworth, Four meets a Pixie named Wazzipaloo, who was sent by Nyx as part of a scouting party on Mariposa's behalf to try to locate Four. He discovers the zom-controlled form of Rouge, not immediately recognizing that she has been infested. Rouge's behavior tips Four off that something is wrong, though. Rather than allow Four to be captured and infested, the last vestiges of Rouge decide to kill Four instead. They struggle, and Rouge falls to the bottom of the Uncanny Valley where the zom escapes. Four buries his friend. In the aftermath, Four is approached by the Ancient One, who preys upon Four's distress and offers him a way to undo her death. He gives Four a relic called the fate-shifter, explaining that Four can use it to rewrite reality. At first Four is skeptical, until he is allowed to use the relic to retrieve a one-of-a-kind plush toy from his childhood. Four resolves to begin making corrections to his reality, with Wazzipaloo—still determined to deliver him to Nyx—going along for the ride. Four returns to the repair shop prior to Rouge's zom encounter and intercepts the zom, destroying it with a blunderbuss. In the wake of his success, he proceeds to stop Syxx from sacrificing herself to dispose of the World-Breaker, but in an unexpected twist, Mariposa sacrifices herself instead. Forever the dragon, who senses Four does not belong, tries to warn him about tampering with fate. Four tries again, going back further and hoping to prevent the discovery of the World-Breaker altogether. He fails to acquire the piece discovered by the Dwarves of Stonekeep, and his attempt to get the piece from the Pixies of the Darklands results in the Wazzipaloo indigenous to that reality being executed. He has more success in going back to the Xanthippe and preventing Mirabel's pirate crew from retrieving their piece of the weapon. Around this time, Wazzipaloo reveals to Four that all humans have a special ability, though many of them remain unaware of it. She tells Four of his limerent ability to compel women to fall in love with him, forcing him to question the validity of his past relationships, particularly that with Mariposa. Four has far more trouble preventing Christabel's death. He travels back to his days on board the Mermaid's Bliss, but she doesn't believe in dragons and thus cannot be persuaded to avoid them. Four tries many different approaches, but to no avail. He finally comes clean altogether and tells Christabel of the fate-shifter, but she, too, warns him of the dangers of tampering with reality, preferring to accept whatever end fate has in store for her. Four travels to his childhood and tries to prevent the death of his older brother, Zwierad. He finds, however, that without the death of his brother, there is no impetus in his life to strike out into the world. He creates a reality in which he never boarded the Mermaid's Bliss and never met Christabel or Mariposa or Syxx. What's worse, to his horror he discovers that he's accidentally left Wazipaloo behind at some point, having effectively fate-shifted her out of existence. The Ancient One appears to Four, offering him a solution to his problems: If Four will agree to go back and prevent the Ancient One from being imprisoned, then it will erase all of the changes Four made with the fate-shifter, effectively restoring reality to normal. Four pretends to agree, but instead, he travels back and finds Mirabel, preventing her from using the Elf talisman to break the seal on the Ancient One's tomb. When the Dwarves find the talisman, however, they blame the Elves for trying to free the Ancient One and declare war on the Elves. They launch the Giant war machine, and Four and Mirabel are imprisoned. Talla Unica sees a glimpse of the future in which she and Mariposa travel to see the Elves, and so they do so. Elladan recognizes great potential in Talla Unica and seeks to enlist her to lead the Elves into battle against the Dwarves. Mariposa stongly argues the point. She later meets with an Elf named Arienne, who teaches Mariposa how to use low-level magic. Four and Mirabel are freed from the Dwarf prison by Syzygy, and Mirabel uses her powers of persuasion to convince Gerrick of Gonderick that they are on the side of the Dwarves. Four and Mirabel are recruited for the war effort and are stationed on board the mechanical Giant. They travel through the war machine, intending to reach the control room in its head and seize control from the battle commander, Jessyka. They take a shortcut through the food storage facility in the Giant's stomach, intending to ride the Giant's hand to the head when it delivers rations to the Dwarves within the head. Using information gleaned by Talla Unica, Mariposa and Arienne are able to enter the Giant through an egress in the foot. They, too, seek to sabotage the machine. Mariposa attempts to use magical levitation to disable the gearworks within the Giant, inadvertantly saving Four and Mirabel as they slip from the Giant's mechanical hand. Both parties meet within the Giant's head module, with Mariposa and Four seemingly on opposing sides of the war. After Four frees the Faerie relaying telepathic orders from the Giant's head to the other sub-sections, there is no way to issue further commands to stop the Giant. Forever arrives and carries the group out of the Giant and to safety. The Elves are unable to stop the Giant from advancing towards their home, the Elvenwood, as well as the butterfly settlement. Mariposa realizes that if all of the Elves cast a levitation spell simultaneously, it might lift the Giant into the sky—stopping the Giant's attack as well as removing sufficient mass to prevent the celestial collision. She convinces the Dwarves to contribute their life essence to the spell, as well as the butterfly people who have arrived to defend their home. The spell is successful and the Giant is sent into outer space. In the aftermath, Elladan is infuriated with Mariposa for her willful interference and forbids further contact with the butterfly people. Despite this, Arienne agrees to remain friends with Mariposa in secret. Also, Four confesses his special ability to Mariposa, but she assures him it never affected her, and that her love for him is sincere. The Ancient One appears to Four again, warning him that he has reneged on the deal. Four responds by throwing the fate-shifter to the ground, destroying it. This has the unexpected effect of fracturing reality; Four finds his world in a temporary state of flux. He spends some time as one of the vagrants living behind the repair shop in Guttersworth, with Syzygy's disembodied arm and leg occasionally offering him guidance. Awash with fate-shifter energy, he realizes that as long as reailty remains fractured, he still has a limited degree of influence over the way it unfolds. He encounters Wazzipaloo, who has never met him, and assures him the butterfly people have never had contact with humans. Realizing what he must do, he travels back to the moment when he was fleeing from the moths who attacked the Mermaid's Bliss. He encounters a younger version of himself, stabbing the younger Four and setting the stage for his eventual first meeting with Mariposa. Four returns to the aftermath of the encounter with the Giant and reunites with Mariposa, unaware that Deorwynn Fletcher has survived the destruction of Castle Torlynn and has amassed an army of moths to plot his demise. Jacket Copy Have you ever made a horrible mistake you wished you could fix? Have you ever suffered a tragic loss that you longed to go back and undo? Four the Master Thief (and one-time King of Torlynn) has been given that chance. Armed with a powerful relic called a fate-shifter, which gives Four the power to return to past events and change them, he and his newfound Pixie companion, Wazzipaloo, are determined to rewrite every last shocking plot twist from the last two e-books! What Four doesn't realize is that there are far more pressing matters to deal with in the present time. Mariposa, the Butterfly Princess, is struggling to deal with life in the new butterfly colony while slowly going insane from an unknown malady. Elsewhere, that stubborn Mirabel is still stuck on the plot of the last book and has come up with a new scheme to prevent the Moon from crashing into the Earth... even if it means altering the Earth's orbit to do it! Trivia The fictional timeline of the story mirrors the real-life development of the book. In both real life as well as in the story, two years passed between'' The Quest for the World-Breaker and ''The Curse of the Fate Shifter. The story will continue in ''Even More Butterfly Tales: Embarrassment of Riches. '' Category:Books